Somewhere the Fates are Laughing
by Milk of Awesomeness
Summary: Just your typical "Percy is raised or blessed by a random god" story. Or not. Annabeth Jackson is the adopted daughter of Sally Jackson, taken in after her father Fredrick Chase abandoned her. Sally knows that her foster child is every bit a demigod as her son Percy, but there's one god who knows young Annabeth is a little bit more.


**Anyway, the "Percy is raised by some random god for some reason and blessed by like, everybody and has all their powers somehow" trope has gotten a bit stale even though it's a guilty pleasure for the most part, especially when he attends Yancy still and Chiron and Grover don't realise he knows he's a demigod. Anyway, I did a twist and had it be Annabeth. I've also noticed that in a lot of fics like the above there's a lot of Annabeth bashing, sadly. So anyway, hopefully it's also more realistic, no offense to those who use this trope. This is a one-shot for now since I don't really know how the books would go with this twist. Bleh.**

 **I don't really like writing canon divergent fanfic when I haven't caught up with the most recent book in the canon universe because there might be something in TDP that we learned about the universe that degates something in this so if there is I haven't read that book yet because I'm a just a wee broke college kid so ignore the messed up canon.**

 **Oh yeah, and I have a headcanon about Percy's personality in the beginning of TLT due to my own problems with ADHD and schoolwork and it's mentioned in here by Chiron.**

* * *

Athena placed the girl in a bassinet lined with gold, mumbling an incantation so that she would have the same physical properties as a child who was conceived through intercourse, i.e. the navel. She gave her child a soft look. _Annabeth,_ her mind told her. It felt right. _Annabeth Chase._

Fredrick didn't know yet. She had not informed him of the child's creation. She was sure that the man would willingly take in the child, their daughter. He was a smart man, had just moved from Virginia to New York for his new job. Athena was proud to have found him.

She wrote a letter, explaining who and what their child was. Fredrick could see through the Mist and knew that the Gods of Olympus were real. She sent the basket down to his doorstep through the winds. It still surprised her nonetheless when he prayed for her to take back the child. She bristled with anger at his arrogance. She would never have made a child with him if he was like this.

She yelled at him, informed him of the Ancient Laws forbidding her from raising her own child. Fredrick reluctantly took in the small infant, sneering at the child as he did so. She worried, wondering if she'd been too taken in by his intelligence. Perhaps he wasn't right to raise this young child.

Still, she was now forbidden from directly interfering in her child's life. Which meant when Fredrick put the girl on the streets of Manhattan, abandoning her, she couldn't even step in to save her. She watched over the child, anyway. She could indirectly save her by ensuring she gets found. If no human managed to find her in the next few hours she would contact the CPS. Her child would grow to be intelligent and powerful. That would give her a fighting chance.

It didn't take long for someone to hear her crying child. A brown-haired young woman—an infant of her own—quickly headed to the alley way where Annabeth was being held. Her arms were filled with groceries and the baby's carrier. Athena's eyes widened when she realised that the child was a demigod. She couldn't get a good read on the parent, though.

This woman would be a good choice. Her son was a demigod. It was likely that the woman knew that. Annabeth could have a brother who would be like her, ADHD and dyslexic. They wouldn't be able to share a cabin but they could take care of each other and provide moral support.

She revealed herself to the mortal as the woman set her groceries and son down and picked up Annabeth, her face showing her concern. "Sally Jackson?" She asked. The woman moved back, moving into a position to protect the other child on the ground while holding Annabeth close. Athena raised her eyebrow, scanning the woman. "You can see through the Mist?" She asked, perplexed.

"Yes." She replied, cautious.

Athena offered her a small smile as her daughter's Fate would perhaps not be so short. "I am the goddess Athena."

This knowledge did not soothe her. Sally's eyes set on her son. "The child in your hands… her name is Annabeth. She is my child. I can not raise her. I am bound by the Ancient Laws." She looked at her. "Your lover, the one who fathered your child… How much did they tell you?"

After a brief talk, Athena gave Sally some hints about powerful scents and ways to cover them, never answering her questions in a way that would come close to actually breaking the Laws. She was going to need it. Children of Athena have strong scents and she had a feeling as would Sally's son as he aged. The boy already reeked of power.

While Athena had not told Sally directly that it was her duty to watch Annabeth, to be a mother to the girl—it would violate Ancient Law—she suggested it through coded words. Sally knew that there were little mortals who knew the Truth, who had Sight like she did. No one else would take the girl in and protect her. Even when Poseidon was informing her about the Camp, he had told her that Perseus—Percy, she had taken to calling him—would not be sent there as an infant.

On that day, Annabeth Chase became Annabeth Jackson.

Sally truly loved her as her own in only minutes.

* * *

Poseidon knew that Sally had taken in another child, though he had not been present for how that came about. He wasn't sure what to make of the development. On one hand, it would be good for Percy to have stable family members, but for a mortal child to be so close to a child of the Big Three, he worried.

He visited Percy a few days later. It was the same room that he remembered from the last time he'd come, only a separate crib was placed in the room. He squinted. Something didn't feel right. He stepped closer to the other child—demigod, he realised.

Had a Mortal parent placed their child on the street. He knew of quite a few parents who did so and many of those demigods didn't made it. It never happened this young, though. Only once the Monsters started scenting them. Once it got too complicated for the mortal.

The child opened her grey eyes. He opened his own green in realisation, a part of him displeased to have a child of his enemy so close to his son. What would Athena do to his child—or have her own child do—when he eventually had to claim him. However, the girl was innocent, he knew that.

Percy wouldn't even fight back if the child—Annabeth, he'd learned—was told to kill him. He would grow to be loyal to those he loved.

The girl—Annabeth—stretched in her crib. She was just a child, only a month older than Percy. And Sally was raising her as her daughter, as Percy's sister. Would she hurt her own brother? He frowned. It was like killing that girl they'd discovered, Thalia, because she _may_ be the child of the Prophecy and _she_ could cause Olympus to fall. He had chosen not to do so and his brother was also his rival.

He glanced at Annabeth again. Well, if she was going to be raised alongside Percy, he would give her his blessing. He'd grant her limited powers over his domain, not nearly as strong as one of his children would have, and do his best to protect her as if she wasn't Athena's. She would be his Champion.

Champions and patrons were complicated. The gods were still just as bound by the Ancient Laws—for the most part—as everyone else. Champions were normally called so only in name, usually just to stake a claim over someone else's child. Only in name and they couldn't truly claim them, not as their own. Not as their kid.

Poseidon was doing this differently. This wouldn't be Athena giving him the child's life to appease him. He was giving this to her child as a reluctant gift. As such, she would be able to manipulate, breathe in, and heal in water, but only limited. She'd be able to talk to the animals under his domain, but they would not treat her as a revelled Daughter of the Sea. She'd also have heat resistance.

He placed his hands over the exhausted child's forehead and muttered in Ancient Greek. She lit up with the sea green hue indicating that the blessing took. Her eyes were flecked with green now marking her as his true champion. They were almost undisguisable. She would still look like a normal child of Athena, probably. She looked at him curiously, as if wondering why a strange man's appendage was covering her head. He chuckled and gingerly leaned down to lift her up. She was his champion, his charge now. Just as much as Percy. He rocked her back to sleep gently, trying not to disturb Sally.

After he was done with her, he turned to Percy, the real reason why he had come.

* * *

Sally had been worried the first time that she'd taken a nearly year-old Annabeth with her to Montauk, where she'd met Poseidon about two years before. However, either Poseidon didn't know or care that her adoptive daughter was Athena's child. He didn't seem to mind her being in the cabin at all, not in the many times that she'd taken them.

Percy and Annabeth knew they weren't really siblings, though they both called her Mom and each other their twin. Even though the blonde-haired girl was older by a month they preferred no one knowing Annabeth was adopted. Sally hadn't hidden it from them. She'd known that they'd find out eventually, though she didn't want them to.

The two kids didn't care. They were siblings, that's just the way it was. They only half-believed the fact that they weren't related, at least not siblings. They both had ADHD and dyslexia. That was too coincidental, at least according to an inquisitive Annabeth. Percy wouldn't have cared either way. Family was family.

Chiron and Grover were particularly confused. Grover had found both children's scents. It was only Percy's first. His was strong and Oceanic. It was worrisome, especially if his and Chiron's theories were correct. Annabeth was an enigma. Her scent was different. It was strong and definitely half-god, but it was almost undisguisable in regard to nature gods. Her appearance, love for learning, and arachnophobia pegged her instantly for Athena.

Yet, they were siblings. Twins. However, then he thought about the original Castor and Pollux and realised that didn't mean anything. Though that was kind of odd if she was one of Athena's brain children. Chiron had a feeling that he would have to watch these two personally.

Annabeth's grey eyes were bright. She strived to work harder despite her disabilities while Percy seemed to just not try at all, like he had given up on trying. Well, he'd been kicked out of every school he'd been in due to the problems of being a demigod. That lack of self-esteem didn't surprise him, sadly.

He looked at the weapon that he kept in his desk. Riptide. Poseidon had somehow ended up with it at some point. Chiron had only been told to give it to a brave hero. The blade had a tragic past with many owners.

Then the incident happened with Alecto, apparently accusing Percy of stealing the Lightning Bolt right after the water came out of the fountain and drenched that despicable girl. This was not good. And then that there's two of them? Chiron worried of what would happen if they both made it to sixteen. How would they know which of the two was the Child the Prophecy called for.

* * *

Two days later, Percy and Annabeth both passed out upon reaching the border with a comatose Grover, passing the Tree where the Daughter of Zeus had given her life to save the son of Hermes only five years before. When Chiron heard of the bathroom incident he was certain of it.

Annabeth was a problem. According to Grover, Sally had told him that she was not Annabeth's biological mother and that the children knew that. The centaur and satyr figured that the children referred to themselves as twins due to how close they were in age.

She instantly gravitated towards the Athena campers, taken in by their intellect. Malcolm seemed confused. He's sure he's her half-brother but all children of Athena know that they're demigods before they get to camp, even if they don't know who they're godly parent is. She's bright, though. Chiron

Meanwhile, Percy apparently exploded a bathroom and fails at archery. Chiron even gets an arrow stuck in his tail for all his efforts and Lee Fletcher gives up on helping him quickly. He's decent at sword fighting for a first-timer. Even Luke is impressed.

Percy and Annabeth are both placed on border control by Malcolm. Everyone's heard the story about the botched swirly by now and Malcolm's sure that Clarisse will go right for Percy and the unclaimed demigod's sister would attempt to fight with her. It's a perfect distraction for Luke to get through. Malcolm will meet up with the two eventually to make sure Clarisse didn't maim them.

When Malcolm gets there, he manages to notice that the two are relatively unharmed. And then he watches as Percy's injuries start to heal themselves. He's standing in the creek. Malcolm quickly understands and groans. He's one of the few demigods who've read the whole Great Prophecy. He couldn't resist knowing.

Just as he realised this, Chiron watches as a hellhound appears, summoned by someone within camp. He's suddenly sure that the person who stole the bolt really is one of his own campers—likely one of the counsellors he realises—and he's saddened at the thought.

The hellhound charges at Percy and Chiron raises his bow to intercept it. Annabeth reflexively tries to hit it with her own sword but ends up pushed to the side, a cut running through her stomach. However, she's slowed it down enough that it doesn't have time to injure her brother. She's thrown into the stream behind her as the hellhound dissipates.

Annabeth's injuries fade as she sits in the stream. She's drenched, but it's clear that it's healing her. Malcolm looks at her disbelieving. On Olympus, Athena is about to claim Annabeth but the wisdom goddess for once is too shocked by a power her child shouldn't have to do anything. Poseidon smiles from Alantis as he watches the scene play out. His Champion is protective and loyal. And rash, he realises. Not nearly as level-headed as an Athena brat would be, but still just as bright.

In Camp, There's not enough time for people to yell accusations about who summoned the hellhoiund or why it would try to attack the newest additions when two identical symbols appear over the kid's heads.

Zeus screams at his brother. He'd known about the one brat and was only letting him live because he needed his bolt back, but the second? Unforgivable.

"It is determined." Chiron says.

Percy looks confused though his sister—truly his sister, apparently—seems to understand what's going on. The trident above her head looks wrong though and something doesn't feel right about something her mother said about her birth parents but she decides not to wonder about it.

On Olympus, Athena rages at her uncle once she comes out of her stupor, wishing that she hadn't been forced to let her daughter stay in that house. Raised along a sea spawn, claimed by someone else—and apparently being given the blessing of scum—before she could claim her daughter.

She doesn't know why he would claim her daughter. He should know that the girl isn't his and wasn't birthed by his mortal lover and she lets her own claim battle his, confusing the campers when Annabbeth's claim is changed to an grey owl while Percy's fades. Even an uninterested Dionysus is raising his eyebrows.

Chiron would sort out the unprecedented mess later.

Somewhere, the Fates are laughing.


End file.
